Galaxy Note 7 catches fire in China even as Samsung claims handsets are safe

A Galaxy Note 7 device deemed safe has burst into flames while being charged in China. Hui Renjie, a 25-year-old tech worker, claimed the device was purchased from an online retailer called JD.com less than 24 hours before it exploded.

"We are currently contacting the customer and will conduct a thorough examination of the device in question once we receive it," Samsung told Bloomberg.

This is the second Galaxy Note 7 fire in less than a week. Another Note 7 had exploded last week in the country, but battery supplier ATL had concluded the explosion was due to external heat, and not a hardware fault.

The devices that have exploded in China are both likely from Samsung's original Note 7 batch. When Samsung recalled the device globally it excluded the majority of Note 7 units sold in China in the recall process because the batteries in the phones came from ATL, the supplier Samsung said had safe batteries. Samsung had even replaced its own subsidiary Samsung SDI with ATL as the chief battery supplier for all Note 7 devices post the recall fiasco.

Re-issue of new handsets have commenced in most countries and most of them have the ATL battery onboard. Although there have been no widespread complaints from the Note 7 batch coming with ATL batteries, some users in South Korea had recently reported that their replaced phones were facing serious battery drain issues.

Samsung has still not addressed these standalone incidents and is currently focusing on getting older Galaxy Note 7 devices exchanged globally. The mammoth recall is already estimated to cost the Korean smartphone maker nearly $5bn (£3.8bn).